The well-loved and dedicated teacher was in the wrong place at the wrong time last Sunday afternoon. Through no fault of her own, her life, which was dedicated to others in so many ways, was taken away. In the instant before she died she pushed her only child, Angela, out of harm's way.

On Friday, as the driver of the bus, Peter Clarke, underwent psychiatric treatment in custody, Maire's grieving brother said she would have extended the hand of forgiveness and reconciliation to him. He told her funeral mass, attended by over 1,000 people, that the family was praying for Clarke that he might find peace and healing.

Contrast this with the Antrim town of Ballymena after the tragic death of 15year-old Michael McIlveen, who was killed for being a Catholic in a community torn apart by sectarianism. Despite their terrible loss, Michael's heartbroken family invited DUP leader and local MP Ian Paisley to his funeral tomorrow in an attempt to ease knife-edge tensions.

Michael's uncle, Francis McIlveen, said Paisley was the first politician to ring him at the hospital after Michael was beaten up by a loyalist gang. He said that, regardless of what anybody else thought, the family was extending a welcome to the DUP leader. Paisley is understood to have declined to attend the funeral, but is expected to visit the family in their home to offer his sympathy.

It's a pity this spirit of reconciliation was not understood by Paisley's colleague, DUP councillor Roy Gillespie, an evangelical Protestant who used the occasion of the teenager's death to fuel tensions.

"As a Catholic, he [Michael McIlveen] won't get into heaven unless he has been saved. If he did not repent before he died and ask the Lord into his heart, he will not get into heaven. Catholics are not accepted into heaven, " he told reporters in a series of remarks that were as outrageous as they were cruel and insensitive.

As our report today by northern editor Suzanne Breen shows, the sectarian bigotry in Ballymena is palpable in the aftermath of the attack on Michael McIlveen a week ago. The teenager was chased half a mile by a Protestant gang who then beat him with baseball bats. His death a day later has devastated his family and friends on both sides of the community.

On Friday, two 15-year-old girls were arrested over alleged death threats against a 16-year-old Protestant friend of Michael's.

The girl, who maintained friendships with Catholics and was regularly in Michael's company, was allegedly told, "You're next, you're dead."

Her mother revealed that her daughter and Michael used to joke about. "She once wore his Celtic top and he wore her Rangers necklace for a laugh, " said the woman, a Protestant who is married to a Catholic.

Community leaders such as councillor Roy Gillespie could learn a lot from a fine young person like Michael McIlveen, who understood that a Celtic jersey was only an emblem, not an entire identity.

DUP members in Ballymena should be leading by example instead of stoking the fires of sectarianism. Their attendance at Michael McIlveen's funeral could become a turning point.

Instead Gillespie has used it as an opportunity to demonise the Catholic Church and exacerbate the sectarian cancer at the heart of his community.